Nazi Germany

Frederic Zeller, a sculptor and author of a book about his escape from Nazi Germany, died on Saturday at his home in Sag Harbor, N.Y. He was 70. The cause was cancer, said his wife, Susan Kennedy Zeller. Zeller, who was born in Berlin in 1924, eventually escaped to England. His parents died in a Nazi death camp. In 1957, he immigrated to the United States, where he settled in New York City. He worked as an advertising copywriter and eventually began creating sculptures and collecting art. His autobiographical account of the war years, When Time Ran Out: Coming of Age in the Third Reich, appeared in 1989.

For most third graders, the school year began with the hustle and bustle of new teachers, fresh notebooks, and crisply ironed uniforms. But the third grader in Gaza whose photo appeared in the New York Times on Aug. 30 wore a different kind of uniform: a headband with "jihad" slogans and military-style camouflage pants, while carrying a Kalashnikov rifle and marching alongside adult members of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group. The macabre practice of educating children to hate and kill, honed to deadly perfection in Nazi Germany, is alive and well 70 years after the end of the Third Reich.

In a Dec. 24 letter, the writer asks, "Would a Jewish boy in Nazi Germany have been returned to his parents?" Maybe the writer is too young to remember that we sent the ship St. Louis back to Nazi Germany. They were also refused by Cuba. The children on that ship had no future. BEN RAZENSON Coconut Creek

What Boca Raton auto dealers consider a war trophy symbolic of America's finest triumph is proving too hot to handle. The online auction site, eBay, has declined to post for auction a 1941 Mercedes Benz 540K Cabriolet that was special-ordered by Hitler henchman Hermann Goering and is now being restored by High Velocity Classics and European Cars of Boca. And eBay's refusal will end chances that the car gets high-profile attention, fears Steven Saffer, general manager of High Velocity Classics.

Words fail me in trying to express my disgust with the "Lowe's View" published on Aug. 20. The feeble attempt to equate Hezbollah with our government is beyond contempt and is reminiscent of the vitriolic cartoons published in Nazi Germany.

The ugly dragon of Nazi Germany lifts its head again, with its bloody fangs, after 50 years. Why? Does it need innocent victims to blame for its financial problems again? Why does the world tolerate this dangerous creature that seems to have its roots left by the vicious Huns of Germany centuries ago? BETTY HUDSON Delray Beach

I was deeply troubled by the article about the West Virginia couple taken away in handcuffs for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts during a July presidential appearance. Are we still in the USA, or have we suddenly gone back in time to Nazi Germany? Americans have always had the right to express their opinions without fear of reprisal.

Ever wonder what life would be like if Elvis lived today and Nelly made music in the 1960s? What if Einstein was born in Nazi Germany and killed by Hitler? Would our world be one of chaos if communication never had been established? How would our present be affected if the past were somehow different? -- Sara Ganim, Archbishop McCarthy High

It would be impossible to adequately compensate people in monetary terms for the suffering they endured in the labor camps of Nazi Germany. An agreement between U.S. and European officials, however, will be directing at least some money to those who worked as slave laborers or forced laborers in the factories of the Third Reich. The agreement establishes a $5 billion fund financed by the German government and by companies that profited from the labor of people forced to work in conditions so appalling that they often led to death.

There is no doubt the Bush administration has bungled the handling of Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the president's goals remain worthy: the establishment of free governments in the Middle East, using democracy itself as the ultimate weapon to combat terrorism. Now Bush bashers are comparing us to the Nazis. Recently a letter writer wrote, "President Bush's irresponsible acts have damaged the reputation of the United States throughout the world by making our country look like a bully on a scale not much lower than Nazi Germany."

An exhibit explores World War II, Hollywood and anti-Semitism through iconic movie posters from 1939-49. This traveling exhibit, "Cinema Judaica: The War Years 1939-1949," is on display at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, 301 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach, through Aug. 24. It illustrates how the motion picture industry countered America's isolationism, advocated going to war against the Nazis, influenced post-war perceptions of the Jewish people...

Otto Decker, saved by the Kindertransport rescue mission before World War II broke out, shared his story of survival during a recent Forum discussion group meeting in West Delray's Vizcaya community. Decker, 84 and a Boca Raton resident, was born in Wiesbaden, Germany. He was one of a group of 50 Jewish children who were sent to Frankfurt by their German parents in 1938 to live together in safety. "It was after Kristallnacht, Nov. 9 and 10, 1938, throughout Nazi Germany and Austria when everything went bad for the Jewish people," Decker said.

On this day 69 years ago, soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front pried open the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau and were greeted as liberators by the 7,000 or so emaciated prisoners who were among the walking dead remaining within the camp at war's end. The liberation of Auschwitz — that chamber of horrors where more than a million Jews from across Europe were consigned to death in the gas chambers — was the first tangible step...

A Holocaust survivor from South Florida testifying in Washington, D.C. last week before the Senate Special Committee on Aging chaired by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. asked for help in getting the German government and insurance companies to give more money for the medical, dental and in-home health care needs of survivors in the United States living near or below the poverty level. More than 55,000 Holocaust survivors, half of the estimated 110,000 survivors in the U.S., are living near or below the poverty level, Jack Rubin, 85, of Boynton Beach , said in his testimony before the committee last Wednesday.

Saturday is the 65th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy, better known as D-Day. Most of us only know it from books or movies, like the harrowing opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan. As time marches on, the numbers of those who were there keep dwindling. South Florida is home to many World War II veterans, and we owe them a huge debt of gratitude. Those who stormed the beaches of France can never be thanked enough. They helped turn the war around, setting the stage for the ultimate defeat of Nazi Germany.

The Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County's Jewish Community Relations Council, joined with the Holocaust Learning Center of Temple Torah and Florida Atlantic University's Center of Holocaust and Human Rights Education in hosting a forum on "Nazi Nexus: America's Corporate Connections to Hitler's Holocaust." The March 23 forum took place at the Boynton Beach temple and featured guest speaker Edwin Black, an award-winning New York Times reporter and international investigative author of 65 best-selling books, including "Nazi Nexus: America's Corporate Connections to Hitler's Holocaust," the topic of the forum.

The headlines reads, "Chiles: Cells, not classrooms." Good Lord, what kind of country are we living in? Is this Nazi Germany or what? Impeach Chiles. But applause for Judy Sullivan, president of the Broward County Council of PTAs, who says, "If education had always been our first priority - and it's never been our first priortiy in the Legislature, never, never, never - we might have made enough of a difference that we could cut back on the prisons." JOHN G. CONLEY Lauderdale-by-the-Sea

Your headline on page 18A, in the Feb. 8 newspaper, "Stabbing assault kills Jew," could have been printed in the 1940s, in Nazi Germany's most vile, anti-Semitic newspaper, Der Sturmer. Its editorial staff and Herr Stricker would have been proud of you. Fortunately he was executed at Spandau Prison. This headline is a direct insult to me, as a survivor, and to all self-respecting, decent, human beings. I certainly expect an apology, not just for poor editing, but for total insensitivity.

Before time robs us of the last victims of history's greatest crime, Holocaust survivors are marking the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, Nazi Germany's pogrom that signaled the doom of European Jewry. Seventy years ago this week, their young eyes witnessed the burning of two hundred synagogues, looting of Jewish businesses throughout Germany and Austria, and deportation of tens of thousands of Jews to concentration camps. Who could have believed then that those November nights were only the prelude to genocide?

1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. Benny Morris. Yale University Press. $32.30. 524 pp. Before war broke out between Palestinians and Jews in late 1947 and the next year with the fledgling Israeli nation against five neighboring Arab states, David Ben-Gurion and other Zionist leaders had argued that Jewish immigration would benefit everyone in the region economically. It was not an unreasonable argument. Today, despite continuing political gridlock and tribal bloodshed, jobs and other spinoffs from Israel's vibrant economy do trickle down to Palestinians, while more directly benefiting the Arabs who make up 20 percent of the Jewish state's citizenry.